The Cutting Edge: Focus on Technology | Heard on the Beat? / TECHNOLOGY

Test Program to Boost Area-Code Longevity Expanded to 714, 909

California regulators recently expanded the trial use of a more efficient numbering system to regions covered by area code 714 in Orange County and 909 east of Los Angeles. Phone numbers in those regions will be distributed to phone companies in groups of 1,000 numbers--a method known as "number pooling"--beginning Oct. 6 in the 714 region and Dec. 8 in 909. Under a wasteful, decades-old system, phone numbers have been normally given out in blocks of a minimum of 10,000 phone numbers. The switch to 1,000-number blocks, already underway in West Los Angeles' 310 district and the 415 area in San Francisco, is expected to increase the life span of area codes. Similar trials are expected in other California area codes.